> kali It was a name she liked to use in-game: Kali, Destroyer of Worlds, like the Hindu goddess. > Are you in India? > london > You are Indian? > naw im a whitey She was halfway through the room, mowing down the noobs in twos and threes. She was hungry and bored and this Raymond was weirding her out. > Do you know who these people are that you’re killing? She didn’t answer, but she had an idea. She killed four more and shook out her wrists. > They’re working for less than a dollar a day. The shirts they make are traded for gold and the gold is sold on eBay. Once their avatars have leveled up, they too are sold off on eBay. They’re mostly young girls supporting their families. They’re the lucky ones: the unlucky ones work as prostitutes. Her wrists really ached. She slaughtered half a dozen more. > The bosses used to use bots, but the game has countermeasures against them. Hiring children to click the mouse is cheaper than hiring programmers to circumvent the rules. I’ve been trying to unionize them because they’ve got a very high rate of injury. They have to play for 18-hour shifts with only one short toilet break. Some of them can’t hold it in and they soil themselves where they sit. > look she typed, exasperated. > it’s none of my lookout, is it. the world’s like that. lots of people with no money. im just a kid, theres nothing i can do about it. > When you kill them, they don’t get paid. 240
Reality Hackers : Extended : Anda’s game (Short fiction)